“September 1980,” Drexler said. “He had just showed up in a taxi outside the old athletic building at the University of Houston and coach (Guy V.) Lewis told us to take him to the gym to see if he could play.

“He didn’t really know all the rules. You’d give him the ball and he’d take off running. But on one play, and he did it so quick, he took off for a jump hook from the free-throw line and he almost dunked it. Coach Lewis’ eyes flew wide-open. He said, ‘If he can do that, I can teach him the rest.’ ”

It was the beginning of a friendship that carried them through the hot summer days at Fonde Recreation Center through their college highlights in the UH Phi Slama Jama era through their pro careers and ultimately united them for an NBA championship on the 1995 Rockets.

“He had raw skills early and such tremendous footwork,” Drexler said. “He was also fortunate that he came to the gym of the right man. Coach Lewis was a big-man’s coach. And with his help together with the work he got from Moses Malone at Fonde, Hakeem just blossomed.”

3-on-1 no mismatch

Michael Young was a high-flying member of those Phi Slama Jama teams and marvels at how far Olajuwon progressed so fast.

“They told us at the time that he had only been playing basketball for three months and that was tough for me to believe on that first day,” Young said. “Because the guy could catch and didn’t have a bad touch. In our early practices, coach Lewis would put Hakeem at one end of the floor to defend the basket and we would go three-on-one against him. The first few times, we’d go down and dunk on him, because he couldn’t recover fast enough.

“But as we got deeper into the season, we’d go up to dunk and he’d contest that shot. So you’d pass to another guy and before he could go up for a dunk, Hakeem had already closed and was over there to block that shot, too. That’s three-on-one and we couldn’t score.

“It got to the point in our college games or at Fonde, I would invite the guys I was guarding into the lane. ‘Are you sure you want to go in there and try that layup? Sure, go right ahead.’

“Looking back to those early days, it’s tough to believe he could be where he is now the Hall of Fame, one of the greatest ever. But he was a natural starting out and then he always worked so hard.”

One of a kind

“The thing I remember about Hakeem is if practice started at 10, he would get there at 9:45 while the rest of us were stretching and jumping rope to get loose,” Mitchell said. “He would walk on the court, touch his toes once, then throw up the ball and he was the best player on the court.

“On my first road trip to New York in the preseason, he actually made me go shopping with him and bought me, the rookie, some new clothes. I’ll never forget how pleasant he was off the court and what a fierce competitor he was on it.

“The game has had Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Shaquille O’Neal and (Bill) Russell. But no big man ever had his footwork, those moves. Hakeem would make moves on people, fake them out of their shoes and literally be laughing as he laid the ball in off the glass. There’s never been anyone like him.”